Panicked Perch

Every winter, on a big, polluted, perch filled CT lake, perch run away from hypoxic waters in the main lake and try to survive near the mouths of tributaries. The result is impressive schools of fish in small water really not doing a whole lot of anything except slowly wasting away. I found that these fish could be caught, and that as things slowly warmed up in the spring they could be caught on dry flies at times, and at other times bigger yellow perch were present. It's kind of fun, mostly just to see so many fish packed into one place. Fishing for them has gotten less fun because it's just too predictable. I still go do it sometimes because in late winter I'm basically just waiting for those days when I can go out and catch a whole bunch of different fish again, and those perch provide a quick and briefly satisfying fix. This winter I haven't needed that kind of fix, right up until the other day. It had been an awfully long while since I'd caught something other than a salmonid and I knew the snow was coming. So I went and messed with the perch.

I can't lie, this snow has got me down. I was loving it hiking around until 2:00 a.m. during the storm, tracking fox, deer, grouse, coyote, and bobcat, but now that it's all on the ground and it's really could again... I want it gone. This is going to be a slow week in terms of fishing and brutal in terms of work, but the weekend should improve things. I hope.

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